Game Reviews: Whack more zombies in 'Dead Island: Riptide'; collect more Legos in 'Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins'

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins. Screenshot courtesy of Nintendo

"Dead Island: Riptide" kicks off right where "Dead Island" ended. The four survivors who are immune to the zombie outbreak escaped the island of Banoi, but after landing on a military ship they are put into custody and experimented on. A storm hits, the virus infects the crew, and the ship crashes into the tropical island of Palanai, where Techland's new zombie adventure takes place.

This game isn't "Dead Island 2" by any means. "Riptide" feels more like an expansion of the original. To simply put it, it looks and plays the same with minor tweaks and additions. A new protagonist who specializes in hand-to-hand combat, John Morgan, can be chosen. Stormy weather will occasionally blow in to add tension, and driving a boat around, smashing into zombies trying to crawl aboard, is very satisfying. Occasionally you'll have to defend a position with AI partners, who will always be begging for help.

While there are an assortment of guns in the game, from pistols and shotguns to nail and flare guns, melee weapons are the popular choice. Maces, hammers, knives, brass knuckles, baseball bats and more are all awaiting to be upgraded with special mods of your choosing. Want a baseball bat with nails in it? You can have it. How about a flaming shovel to set zombies on fire? You got it. However, I didn't see any pros or cons from one melee weapon to another, especially when most of the time you're just mindlessly swinging away at enemies.

Combat mechanics are very basic. Bopping a zombie will usually stun them, allowing you to finish the job. You can kick ones charging at you to stop them, although sometimes it's tough to judge the distance and you'll end up whiffing. It's easy to get overwhelmed by a few of them, depleting your stamina bar in no time. There's not much strategy for normal zombies, but bigger ones like the thugs require more dodging.

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Dying isn't a big deal anyway. You'll lose some cash as a penalty, but usually you'll restart close by. A couple times I had to restart at a safe camp a long ways back, which was disappointing to make the trek over again when I knew I shouldn't have had to.

Since areas constantly respawn with loot, cash is very easy to come by. Weapons can be fully upgraded soon after you find them, and I never had to worry about being low on funds. I even started selling miscellaneous items used for modding weapons, since I kept finding them.

"Riptide" does become repetitive after several hours. While the main mission keeps things interesting, an abundance of side missions have you helping out the locals, including finding friends and retrieving items. These fetch quests become a drag to finish since you're killing the same types of zombies along the way. But you do get to level up a lot, using skill points to buff up your character in any way you please.

The island of Palanai is a colorful one, and the lighting effects are nice. Glitches, though, will pop up. Screen tearing is a minor annoyance, but the times the frame rate seemed to drop off a cliff were when I was battling multiple zombies in the water. The slowdowns were to the extreme and I thought my game was going to freeze up. Hopefully, a patch is released in the near future.

The game is meant to be played co-op, and I had no problem connecting with others online. But if you prefer to play solo, it doesn't punish you for it.

In the end, "Dead Island: Riptide" is more of the same zombie-bashing madness from the original game. Did you like the first one? Then you'll enjoy this one. Didn't like it? You may want to pass on it.

2 1/2 stars out of 4

The Xbox 360 version of "Dead Island: Riptide" was supplied by Deep Silver for this review. It is also available for the PS3 and PC.

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins

I enjoyed "Lego City Undercover" for the Wii U immensely, not because it was finally something new to play on Nintendo's new console but because it's a great game. "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins," now out for the 3DS, is kind of like the "lite" version of its console counterpart.

The story takes place a couple years before the infamous Chase McCain's return to Lego City. Here, he is a rookie police officer, and his first mission, of course, is to pick up donuts for the staff. After some more silly missions McCain finds himself in the midst of a local crime wave, and he must go undercover to capture all the bad guys, including the evil mastermind Rex Fury.

Familiar abilities are unlocked as you progress through the story. As a robber, you can break into the locked doors and safes. Being a farmer let's you glide through the air with the help of a chicken. Solving many puzzles requires changing disguises on the fly, and this is simply done with the D-pad. You can also use the 3DS' gyroscope function to scan the city for audio clues and hidden secrets.

The layout of Lego City is similar, as well, but it looks much different due to the limitations of the handheld. The draw distance is OK -- the city has a thick fog throughout it. Instead of one giant overworld, the city is separated into various chunks and locked behind story progression, which is disappointing when you just want to drive around and the game says you can't go somewhere yet. Loading times aren't any better, either, which unfortunately carries over from the Wii U game.

There's a noticeable lack of cars and people walking around, too, so it's not really a bustling city. However, the graphics look good, even though there is a small dip in the frame rate in spots where a lot goes on.

Part of the charm of the Wii U game is its top-notch voice work and humorous script. There is very little of it here in "The Chase Begins" -- again because of handheld limitations. There's a lot of text to read, which slows down gameplay.

Like any Lego game from TT Fusion, the story is a just a small part of the overall package. The game is filled with collectibles and things to accomplish, so 100-percenting it will take many hours of dedication. Destroying scenery is still fun, collecting thousands of Lego studs and super bricks (used to build helipads, jump ramps, among other things). The menu does a good job explaining what still needs to be found in each section of the city. There's no lack of exploration.

Your overall satisfaction of "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins" could come down to if you played the Wii U game. If you did, it will feel underwhelming because of what is missing or modified for a handheld experience. Otherwise, it's a fine game that could use a little more polish.

2 1/2 stars out of 4

A downloadable code for "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins" was supplied by Nintendo for this review.